


Odd happenings

by Aaymeirah



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-08 23:52:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17396105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaymeirah/pseuds/Aaymeirah
Summary: Sarah is more distant than ever. Odd objects have been found. There are noises in the night coming from Sarah's room. Her Stepmother Irene is worried and wants to know what is going on. Too bad she has no imagination.





	Odd happenings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elf (Elfwreck)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfwreck/gifts).



“Sarah! Time for school!” Irene, Sarah’s stepmother calls up the stairs, holding a bowl of pancake batter in her hands. To her surprise, Sarah comes down the stairs within five minutes, dressed in a hideous blue puffed shirt with a colorfully embroidered vest that she has no recollection of buying for Sarah.

“Morning.” Sarah says, dipping a finger in the batter and licking it.

“You woke up too late to have pancakes but there is fruit in the box. Hurry up; you can’t be late for school again.”

“Yes mother.” She drags out the last word, emphasized by an impressive eye roll. Irene shakes her head.

“On with you then.” She watches her stepdaughter, hope getting ever fainter that they would have a healthy relationship. Such was the problems of attempting to raise a teenage  
As Sarah leaves for school, reciting lines from the play her school was putting on in two days, Toby starts to cry. Putting down the bowl of batter, Irene goes up the stairs to retrieve him.

“Where’s Lancelot then?” She says in the usual baby voice, searching for the stuffed animal that Sarah gave to Toby with surprising alacrity a month ago. Getting on her hands and knees to look under the dresser, something moves in the corner of her eye. Whipping her head around, all she sees is the curtain twitching faintly in the breeze from the open window. Pulling it back, no one is there, aside from Lancelot, leaning against the wall. Irene picks it up a gives it to her son who immediately stops crying. Dismissing the movement to the bottom of her mind, Irene continues about the business of preparing Toby for the day.

Toby was at daycare. Robert was at work. It was her day off. She just had to finish the laundry, and then she would go visit her friends at the café down the road. She shakes her head as she pulls out one of Sarah’s shirts from the laundry. How many times did she have to tell that girl? Never put whites with the colors. It was Sarah’s own fault that the formerly cream-colored shirt was now a sickening shade of pink.

As Irene enters Sarah’s room to put the clothes on her dresser and lay the accusing shirt out on her bed, she stops for a moment to truly look at Sarah’s room.  
Here was her walls of stuffed animals. The spot formerly dedicated to her beloved teddy bear Lancelot had a barn owl in its place. Books were stacked everywhere. Her makeup and jewelry lay scattered upon the desk with a recently polished mirror reflecting the room. Nothing out of the ordinary per se. Nevertheless, something did not feel right.  
Repressing a pain of guilt, Irene started to go through her desk to see if she could find something to tell her what had made Sarah even more distant and out of it than she already was. Nothing out of the ordinary. Accidently dropping a beaded necklace, her hand knocks over a stack of school papers. Irene bends over to pick them up. Once again, she notices something in the corner of her eye. Not a movement, just a merry sparkle. She reaches behind the desk and comes out with a most curious object.

Where could Sarah have obtained something like this? Clear and spherical, the orb fit perfectly in the palm of her hand.

An owl hooted. What? Irene drops the orb, startled and turns around. The stuffed animal was the only owl around, and it was still in its place. Somewhat. Irene tries to convince herself that the head had always been pointed to the right, but when she came into this room, she could have sworn that the owl was staring directly at her.  
Irene shakes her head to clear it and returns everything to its proper place.  
Just her imagination playing tricks on her, making her paranoid because she was going through her stepdaughter’s things.  
The big clock starts to ring, lunchtime. Irene puts all concerns out of her mind to go visit her friends.  
If she had been paying more attention, Irene would have noticed that the clock did not sound it’s customary twelve tones, it sounded thirteen.  
But who really pays attention?

It was late, both Sarah and Toby were asleep. Irene finishes her cup of calming tea and heads upstairs where her husband, always early to bed, sleeps. She was the only one awake.  
Thump. Thump. Thump. The noise came from Sarah’s room. Was she okay?  
Irene hurries up the stairs to stand in front of Sarah’s door. A light shines from the crack between the door and the floor.  
“Sarah, you alright?” Irene calls softly. No response. Irene opens the door to see Sarah, propped up in bed, reading the script for her play.  
“Dear, it’s one o’clock. You should be asleep.” Sarah looks up guiltily, her cheeks faintly read.  
“I have to make sure I know my lines Mother.”  
“And you can study them tomorrow.” Irene comes into the room to remove the script from her hands. A loud fart rips through the silence.  
“Sorry mother, I ate something bad in the cafeteria I think.” Sarah says quickly. It seems like she’s covering something up. But no one is in the room, and maby she’s just embarrassed. Not being able to prove something is the matter, and not wanting to think her stepdaughter or herself crazy, Irene turns an leaves the room  
“Goodnight Sarah.” Sarah doesn’t answer as she turns off her bedside lamp. Irene closes the door and goes to bed, resolving to pay more attention to her stepdaughter.

After her Stepmother leaves, Sarah turns the light back on and gets out of bed.  
“Hoggle, I told you to be quite!” She reprimands him as he comes out from the closet where he was hiding with Ludo and Sir Didymus.  
“Actually my Lady that was me.” Sir Didymus apologizes with a bow. Sarah sighs.

Reunion


End file.
